The Coddling Of The American Mind: Video Analysis

Tension between racial groups has been around in the United States for years and although the tension changes in presentation, it does not seem to be disappearing anytime soon. Nevertheless, to many Americans the majority of theses issues were solved during the Civil rights movement. Be that as it may this is not the society that was formed after the civil right movement. Our society runs on the idea of having a dominate group in power and all the rest being oppressed, with their voices being distorted or muted. When Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt wrote “The Coddling of the American Mind” in 2015, tensions between racial groups were starting to become tenses everywhere but especially on college campuses. People were becoming fed up with

On February 21st, 2015, an article, about a video the organization Hatch created, sparked a conversation about Microaggressions. In the article Buzzfeed states, “Hatch works with ‘kids with a mission’ to address social issues and to create content for adults to better understand certain issues kids face” (Teenage Girls Speak Out About Microaggressions In This Heartfelt Video). The videos were unscripted videos although the girls had heard of the term microaggression before siting down to do the video. This video is so powerful because the message is not coming from adults it is coming from children. The video also touches upon the link found between microaggressions and anxiety as well as binge drinking. While this video is short, 1 minute and 48 seconds, this is the type of video people will watch and start a conversation about. After watching the video people have to take a minute to process the statements they heard the girls say and think back to time when they said those same phrases, knowing they may have hurt someone. Social media was not the only one to take notice of this movement; Hollywood also took notice making more movies geared towards social justice

This movie was called “Dear White People” and the film focuses on African-American students and their perspectives under the light of escalating racial issues in prestigious colleges in the United States. A. O. Scott the author of Advanced Course in Diversity an article in the New York Times writes, “We are all stereotypes in one another’s eyes and complicated, unique individuals in our own minds”. When we look at someone else we often see only the stereotypes not the human underneath him or her. It is only until we peal back our own judgments; we can truly get to know someone. The movie has a wide range of characters with intersecting lives that cannot work together because of the hegemonic forces at work on the